A Glimpse of things to come
by DSISandraPullman39
Summary: "Half an hour but I swear if this ends up on the front page of The Sun on the morning I'm setting Malcolm Tucker on you and I can tell you it's not an experience you'll enjoy you'll not be communicating with the dead you'll be one of them when he's finished with you."
1. Chapter 1

**A Glimpse of things to come 1/?**

**Disclaimer:-** Don't own them just borrowing!

**Episode:- **None

**Pairing:-** Nicola/Ollie (eventually)

**Rating:- **M

**Achieve:- ** **http(:/) . /group/rebeccafrontlewisffarchive/**

**Summary:- **"Half an hour but I swear if this ends up on the front page of The Sun on the morning I'm setting Malcolm Tucker on you and I can tell you it's not an experience you'll enjoy you'll not be communicating with the dead you'll be one of them when he's finished with you."

**Author's Note:- **Written for the "psychic" challenge to write a fic where someone is told something by a psychic that may or may not prove to be correct. Rated for language and sexual content in later chapters enjoy and reviews would be lovely!

"I always loved the whole end of the pier type stuff my parents used to bring us to Blackpool every year when I was a child we used to come up on the train." Glen sighed a contented smile on his face as Ollie rolled his eyes.

"Did the train have to stop now and then to let a herd of dinosaurs pass?" He jibed as Nicola rolled her eyes dodging a pile of melting ice cream and the screaming child who had obviously dropped it. When they'd suggested they spend their one and only afternoon off during conference week on the pier she'd told them they were mad but with the only other thing available to do being staring at the four boring magnolia walls of her room in the end she'd given in. She'd never been a big fan of the whole "kiss me quick" British seaside resort thing and now at her second party conference as minister for DoSAC she'd seen nothing to change her opinion. Right now walking along the line of stereotypical considering throwing herself of the end of the pier when they finally reached it.

"You're a real comedian at least I'm not an over opinionated embryo I mean what the fuck are you even old enough to be allowed out without your Mummy to hold your hand and wipe your fucking nose?" Glen shot back as Ollie opened his mouth to reply and she growled with frustration.

"Will you two stop acting like fucking teenagers trying to decide which of you has the biggest fucking cock?" She shouted glaring at them as they both turned staring at her as if they'd only just remembered she was with them "It's worse than being out with my kids I swear I have to mother you two more than I do them and it's a fucking joke. I'm going to find somewhere to have half an hours' peace and a very large glass of wine if you two mature a few decades or so come and find me otherwise leave me the fuck alone!"

"Nicola look we're sorry wait…." Ollie shouted as she walked away putting on her sunglasses and ignoring them completely.

Right now what she needed and wanted was some time on her own away from anything political or government related which included them. She wanted to buy a trashy magazine, one only interested in celebrities so there was no chance she'd find herself in it, find a quiet bar and sit in the corner with a glass of wine surrounded by people who didn't give a flying fuck who she was. She needed half an hour to just be Nicola, no one's mother, no one's wife, minister for nothing, just Nicola.

"There she is come on she'd didn't mean it lets catch up with her." She heard Glen call from somewhere behind her and glanced around ducking into the nearest alleyway then opening the door of the first door she saw and stepping inside waiting a moment as she heard them pass Ollie assuring Glen that she would have gone out the other end and they should keep going. Breathing a sigh of relief she looked around realising she hadn't stepped into a gift shop as she thought. The walls were covered in shelves with crystals and old books, the light was dim and the back of the small area she was standing in was obscured by a velvet curtain.

"Come through." The voice of the woman with a soft northern accent came from behind the curtain and she reached for the handle ready to leave before they emerged when something in the whole set up of the shop and the insistence in the woman's voice made her pause. "They will come back and right now I don't think their company is what you need."

"Who are you, what is this place?" She said quietly the small voice in the back of her head telling her she should get the hell away from there and that the curtain in front of her was the last place she should go.

"Come through, there's no need to be nervous it's more spacious through here than out there I promise you can trust that you don't need to worry about your claustrophobia." The voice continued as the small voice becoming a loud one screaming "What the fuck! Run Nicola run now!"

"Who are you and how did you know about my claustrophobia?" She asked taking a few tentative steps toward the curtain glancing back at the door as she did.

"I know a lot about you some of which I feel you would benefit from hearing I've been waiting for you I felt today would be the day."

"Ok look I don't know how you are but if you're trying to scare me I'm not biting." Nicola said loudly finally marching through the curtain and stopping in her tracks as she saw an innocuous looking young woman in jeans and a Hollister t-shirt sitting behind a table in the middle of a spacious airy room in direct contrast to the dark mysterious nature of the entrance to the place.

"Look I know this may seem weird but all that out there; the tourists love it they expect it they come in for crystals and to say they did the whole seaside psychic thing but now and then my spirit guides tell me that someone will come through the door who is meant to cross my path and I am meant to help. I'm Amy, you don't have to tell me your name or anything about you but please hear me out." The girl smiled pointing at the seat one the other side of the table as Nicola stared at her for a second still not sure what was going on.

"Amy? Aren't you people supposed to be called something like "Madame Teresa" or something equally insane?" She said quietly moving and sitting down in the chair in spite of herself.

"Oh I have, had you not been in such a rush to escape the two gentlemen following you and noticed the sign outside that the tourist crowd I was talking about expect you'd have seen that to them I am Mistress Amelia psychic to the stars but like I said with you it's not about pier front theatrics and shite like that I know right now you want to tell me to get a fucking grip and walk right out the door but all I ask is that you hear me out."

"I don't believe any of this bollock. You know the party conference is in town, you probably saw me come in on CCTV in the front of the shop or something and Glen and Ollie weren't exactly quiet outside." Nicola sighed feeling her curiosity turn to irritation as the girl failed to react. "It's the worst kept secret in politics that I'm claustrophobic so knowing that tells me nothing other than that you read the tabloids. What are you going to tell me next that I have four kids and a propensity for making an idiot of myself then a list of other things that anyone you stopped in the street could tell you then expect me to hand you a small fortune in return?"

"I don't want payment for the things I have to tell you I've already said I make my living from people who want me to tell them that they're going to get that job they wanted, from pregnant women who want me to tell them if their baby is a boy or girl and silly girls who want to know if they are going to meet the man of their dreams in a Blackpool night club. Once in a while though I know I can make a real difference and in those instances I take no payment it's my way of paying back my psychic debt that I owe for all those tourist time wasters." Amy smiled sighing deeply as Nicola stood up.

"Well pay back your psychic debt on some other more gullible idiot." She snapped storming toward the curtain again.

"You don't have four children you have six, or rather you should have. Twins, born a year before your oldest daughter, one boy one girl you wanted them so much, you fought to save them but your body betrayed you. I don't think Glen and Ollie could have told you that. I'm not asking you to believe me or even care about what I tell you. I'm just asking that you listen."

"James put you up to this didn't he, what the hell is this really about?" Nicola gasped her stomach knotting at the mention of the twins she'd lost five months into her pregnancy. Amy was right neither Glen nor Ollie could have told her about them, it had never come out in the press, it was someone no one in her life at that time knew about other than her and James since her mother had died two years ago and now it was all becoming clear.

"I've never met your husband, he didn't tell me anything your Mother did she has a message for you she's very determined that I pass it on. She says "Nicola Anne Martin sit down and let the girl talk you never where good at just accepting what was good for you and now look at the mess you're in but I'm pleased to see you kept your promise. Your father would so proud to know his ring spends it's days in the corridors of power." That's all she has to say for now. Please hear me out."

"Aren't you supposed to have your eyes rolling back in your head and put on a funny voice when you give messages from the dead?" Nicola said quietly her hand moving to the gold chain in her pocket that her father's wedding ring hung on. Not another person on earth knew that she never went anywhere without it, that her mother had worn it until the day she died and that on her death bed had made Nicola swear she would never abandon it. Since she'd joined the cabinet she'd stopped wearing it around her neck not wanting to deflect the barrage of questions it would bring but she always had it on her person."

"Please sit back down. Give me half an hour of your time and I'll give you what I know. Time that's all I ask."

"Half an hour but I swear if this ends up on the front page of The Sun on the morning I'm setting Malcolm Tucker on you and I can tell you it's not an experience you'll enjoy you'll not be communicating with the dead you'll be one of them when he's finished with you."


	2. Chapter 2

**** For authors notes, disclaimer etc. see chapter 1**

A glimpse of things to come 2/?

"Mr Tucker is not as scary as he'd like everyone to believe." Amy smiled as Nicola sat back down and stared at her.

"That's the sort of statement that could only be made by someone who'd never met him." She sighed something in the pit of her stomach telling her that this was a terrible idea. That she should have just said you're a fucking fruit cake and I'm out of here yet she couldn't move. Something about the girl put her at ease and odd as all of this was she could do with feeling comfortable for half an hour.

"Malcolm had a lot of reasons for his abrasive manner, he'd been badly hurt in the past and just because he seems to pick on you more than the others doesn't mean he hate you though I know you think he does."

"Amy you don't need to be a psychic to know Malcolm has issues but he doesn't like me, he barely tolerates me." Nicola laughed so far her new soothsayer hadn't told her anything that was unexpected other than the revelation about the twins and she couldn't help but think she was being had. Ok she felt sure that no one would know about the loss of her first two children but the babies had been carried close enough to full term that they had to be registered so it was a matter of public record if someone wanted to dig deep enough they could find it out.

"You're far too willing to believe the worst of yourself, Malcolm has true heartbreak in his past I can feel his sorrow gripping my heart and you remind him of that."

"I've never broken his heart!"

"No but you remind him of the person who did. Don't let him make you feel that he doesn't care, trust me the day will come when he had to set his past aside and be there because you need him and he will without a second thought." Amy smiled seeing the look of absolute scepticism in Nicola's eye and immediately realising what she was thinking. "Not on a personal level Nicola, you have no romantic future with Malcolm Tucker."

"Thank god for that! Besides I have a husband sure my romantic future lies with him." She sighted surprising herself with how relieved she was to know that if this girl really could see into the future hers did not lie with Malcolm.

"No I see a lot of things still to come between you and your husband but when those things are done he will leave your life and…."

"There is no way James would walk away. He'd kill me before he'd let me have a life after our marriage. You don't know what he's like he….."

"I know exactly what he's like, I know how he treats you, what he's done to you in the past but he is going to walk away. He's going to do it because he thinks he can and you will always take him back. He's wrong though this time once he goes you will move on and he'll end up regretting what he has lost. He's going to realise that you and your children are what he wants but you will all have moved on and your children will be happy without him too." Amy continued ignoring Nicola's objections as she took a deep breath before continuing. "Your children love you very much, they're proud of you not just for living with their father in spite of his aggressive nature but for your work, they know you are working hard to try to make a difference."

"Now I know you're mad. My children hate my job, they hare how much of my time it takes up and they resent me for not being there for them when they need me." Nicola replied her stomach knotting painfully. Rambling on about Malcolm and James was one thing but starting to bring her children into this insanity was feeling like a step too far. Even though she knew they would dispute it if asked her children were the most important thing in her life and she constantly elt like she was letting them down.

"They may not like the fact that there is so much involved in your job right now, they may even resent it at times but it is the job they resent not you. One day they are all going to grow to make you proud. They are going to be fantastic adults with your sense of work ethic and determination to make a difference. They will go on to make a big difference in the professional fields they chose and that will be largely down to you."

"I doubt it I see them so little."

"They know you love them and are there when it matters." Amy smiled ignoring Nicola's latest interruption. "Your children know that when it matters you are there, when your daughter had her heart broken by her latest boyfriend last week and you held her while she cried herself to sleep then stayed there with her while she slept till morning, those are the sort of things children remember Nicola not how often you are home for dinner."

"How did you know about that?" Nicola asked once again floored by what she was hearing. She vividly remembered the tears and tantrums from her oldest daughter. She'd spent hours letting the 16 year old cry until she fell asleep then couldn't bring herself to leave her alone. What she hadn't done was tell anyone what had happened even when the next day she had to deflect comments about how exhausted she looked and criticism from Malcolm about how shit she was going to look at the photo op at the Olympic Park that afternoon.

"Molly told me." Amy replied "she and David watch over you every day Nicola, they're your guardian angels and they want me to tell you everything will be ok."

"Ok this has gone on fucking long enough and now you're just freaking me out. I don't know where you're getting this information from but I've heard enough." Nicola shouted feeling her heart pound so hard in her chest that she felt it might explode through her chest. Absolutely no one knew the names she had given the twins. She'd still be in hospital when James went to register them and he's named them Mary and Peter after his parents. Those were the names on public record only she knew how upset she'd been when he came back and she saw the paperwork realising he hadn't consulted her. Only she knew that had she had her choice they would have been called Molly and David. She didn't know what she'd got herself into with this but she knew she was going to get herself out of it as she stood up and headed for the curtain leading to the exit.

"Nicola please stop. I know this is frightening when you have no experience of it but you know I'm talking to the spirits, you know I couldn't know these things if I weren't and that is scaring you." Amy pleaded causing her to pause at the curtain again staring back at the young girl as she did. "I have something important to tell you about your future. It may not be with your husband but there is someone you already know who will make you happy and you need to know."

"You realise how completely fucked up this all is?" Nicola snapped as Amy nodded and pointed again to the chair Nicola had just left.

"I know how you feel and how nervous you are Molly says to give me one of the lemon zinger tea bags you have in your handbag and while I'm making it to take some rescue remedy and calm down it will be worth it."

"I must be out of my fucking mind." Nicola sighed rooting around in the bottom of her hand bag pulling out the small freezer bag of herbal tea bags and handing them to the young psychic as she walked to the counter at the back of the room. She knew she should be even more freaked out by the fact that Amy knew the contents of her handbag but she was beyond that. Everything was now, she would have to accept, a walk on the weird side and while she knew she should run and run fast she couldn't help the fact she now needed to know exactly what Amy had to tell her however insane it seemed to be.


	3. Chapter 3

**** For authors notes, disclaimer etc. see chapter 1**

A glimpse of things to come3/?

"Your husband really is going to walk away Nicola. I know all the reasons you find that unlikely right now. I know how controlling he is, I know that he's abused you in the past and that the threat of that happening again is how he feels he keeps you "in line" now but he thinks he's found the woman he should be with right now."

"He always thinks whoever he's screwing at that moment is the woman he should be with, that doesn't change the fact he would never let me go. He considers me his personal property, me and our children."

"Yes he does but this time he thinks he's found someone better. He hasn't. He'll find that out soon enough but by then it will be too late." Amy continued as Nicola stared at her not sure how she felt about the information she was hearing. She didn't love James, she couldn't remember when she last thought she did and had she gone home in two days to find that he had walked away left her and the children to make a better life without him she couldn't say she would have been heart broken. Somehow though the idea that he thought he loved someone else the way he claimed to love her years before when they first met seemed to have shocked her more than she ever expected it to and that was making her feel angry not with herself rather than him.

"I still don't think he'd let me go, the idea that I would someday move on and maybe be with someone else would be too hard for him to stomach he…"

"He doesn't think you would end up with someone else, he thinks no one else would want you. He couldn't be more wrong, someone already wants you, has done for some time. When he goes that person is going to be there for you in a way you never expected and when he is you're going to realise that you have feelings for him too that maybe you haven't been able to admit to yourself just yet."

"Now I know you're round the fucking bend. I spend my days with a handful of men none of whom would be the slightest bit interested in me and none of whom I would be at all interested in. I have no social life, short of the occasional government function and what seems to be regular meetings with my daughter's principle I don't see anyone who could have feelings for me." Nicola laughed making Amy smile sadly as she tried to find a way to put across the information she was getting when the woman in front of her seemed to have such a low of herself and was clearly so blind to what she felt must be obvious.

"Nicola the love this person feels for you is coming through so strongly that it is making me feel light headed, I find it hard to believe that you haven't seen any sign of it. Do you mind if I take your hand?" She asked trying to ignore the sceptical narrowing of Nicola's eyes as she held out her right hand. "No your left hand please, left for love I'm not getting a clear picture yet of who this man is but I think…..yes…much clearer."

"This is madness." Nicola sighed trying to pull her hand away as the younger woman gripped it a little tighter running her fingers over the palm then seeming to jump slightly as they made contact with her wedding ring.

"Oh Nicola you should have walked away from the man you're married to long before now, that ring burns with negative energy you life really will begin when he leaves you behind. He has an evil heart I pity the woman who thinks he loves her right now she won't have her sorrows to seek but you are going to soar when he goes. Your life will truly begin when accept that you are loved and allowed him to show you how beautiful that can actually be."

"Allow who? None of this is making any more sense than it was half an hour ago Amy and you're starting to frighten me. If you're right and there's someone I already know how loves me so much that you can feel it, or claim you can, why can't I? Why haven't I noticed and who is it?"

"You haven't seen it because you don't believe it could happen." Amy replied, finally releasing her hand and closing her yes as Nicola started to wonder if she should just take the opportunity that that action gave to run, to get as far away from this woman and her insane ramblings as possible but found it impossible to move from the seat. For all her assertions that the whole situation was mad, that she didn't believe in "seeing" the future or hearing guidance from students her heart ached to know who this woman felt could love her, who could have fallen in love with her in spite of all reasons she could think of herself why it couldn't be true. James had managed to convince her years before that she was unlovable, that the reason he could do the things he did to her and cheat on her so brazenly was because she was worthless and had driven him away. She'd fought him at first but eventually he'd ground her down and she'd accepted that her life was as it should be. She wasn't even sure her children loved her most days so the idea that someone else might was something she wanted to believe no matter how unlikely it seemed.

"I can't tell you who it is Nicola, I only know he's there your scepticism is making it impossible for me to reach inside and see who he is but I know something. He's going to show himself soon, maybe even before you leave to return to London and when he does, please trust me and let him love you. James will be gone when you get home, that much I can see, the fire that I felt from your wedding ring is the blaze of a light about to die, the final death throes of something that should have been ended many years ago. He has already let you go you just don't know it yet so when this person shows his feelings, when he reaches out to you please promise me you won't immediately reject him. Remember what I've said and allow yourself to be happy."

"I really have to go." Nicola replied, standing up this time and holding her hand out to shake that of the other woman determined that this time she wouldn't be persuaded to stay.

"Yes you do, your friends are starting to worry that they really have lost you and how they might explain that when they return to your hotel." Amy smiled taking her outstretched hand and shaking it the sharp intake of breath she gave making Nicola pause.

"Amy are you ok?"

"Yes, yes I'm fine. Just go and be happy please it's what you deserve." The younger woman replied watching as Nicola disappeared through the curtain and she heard the door close before sitting back at the table and smiling sadly to herself. The final handshake, the fact that the ending of their discussion seemed to have freed something in Nicola's mind had given her a picture so clear when she shook her hand that it had startled her and now she knew exactly who was going to make the woman happy. She had seen him as clearly as if he was standing right in front of her and more importantly she had seen some acceptance in the vision from the painfully unhappy woman who had just left. Now as she cleared the small table and moved to lock the shop down for the evening she could only hope that the scene she had witnessed was in the near future and that Nicola wouldn't allow her lack of confidence delay her happiness for too long.


	4. Chapter 4

**** For authors notes, disclaimer etc. see chapter 1**

A glimpse of things to come 4/?

Stepping out into the cold air of the arcade Nicola rushed toward the end of the short tunnel that she had entered through finally getting out into the fading sunlight outside and leaning against the wall of a closed ice cream store. Gasping slightly to catch her breath she tried to process what had happened in the hour before, now that she was out of the small room and away from the woman who seemed to have such insight into her life it all seemed unreal. If someone shook her now and told her to wake up meaning she found herself sitting on a random beach front bench she'd find dismissing the whole thing as some sort of weird dream remarkably easy. She'd happily reproach herself for having an over active imagination and carry on with the rest of the conference without giving it a second thought.

"Nicola! Nicola where the fuck have you been we've been worried sick!" Ollie shouted as she saw him rush toward her and sighed heavily realising that tiny hope had now been shattered. She hadn't dreamt it, it had really happened and now it wouldn't matter how much she tried to dismiss the confusion it had planted in her head she'd be unable to forget about it.

"I told you I needed some time on my own, what the hell is wrong with you? I've only been gone an hour." She snapped as he reached her and she was finally struck by the fact he was alone. "Where's Glen? Please tell me you didn't push him off the end of the pier I don't know how we'd explain that when we got back to the hotel."

"He's already gone back to the hotel to see if you were there give me a minute to ring him and tell him to call off the fucking search. Seriously Nicola you scared the shit out of me." He replied as she watched him pull his phone out and listened as he told Glen he'd found her and assured him he didn't need to come back out that they'd be back to the hotel later.

"He hasn't gone in and started some sort of mad fucking panic has he? Malcolm will fucking kill me if the whole hotel is on high alert because they think I've disappeared."

"No he's only just got there it's taken us this long to search everywhere we thought you might have been. Come on I need a drink."

"Not half as much as I need one." Nicola sighed falling into step beside him as they headed off the sea front and in the opposite direction to where their own hotel was. "Ollie shouldn't we go back to the hotel, I mean they have a bar. I know last night you drank it dry and probably don't remember but it is there and they do sell alcohol."

"No I think somewhere as far away from the hotel without actually leaving the town is a better bet, then you can tell me what really happened in the last hour." Ollie replied spotting a small deserted looking pub on the other side of the road and placing his hand gently on the small of her back leading her across the road.

"I told you I just needed some time on my own you know this all gets a bit too much for me I hate conference and I hate the fact that you can't even go to the fucking ladies without staffers, other party members or members of the fucking press around." Nicola replied hoping the panic she was now feeling wasn't obvious as they entered the pub and he guided her to a booth in the corner before disappearing to the bar and returning with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

"Bollocks, we looked everywhere, we were in and out of everything from joke shops to fucking amusement arcades and you were nowhere, not only that but when I first spotted you you were clinging to the wall white as a sheet looking like you'd just had a ride on the fucking ghost train, which incidentally I know you hadn't cause we tried there too." Ollie continued rolling his eyes at her vein attempts to hide the fact he knew something had happened in the time she'd been gone. "Now are you going to tell me or am I going to have to set Malcolm on you?"

"You wouldn't dare!" Nicola smiled finally feeling herself relax a little as he winked playfully and she tried to think if she should bother making up a story or just tell him. Either way she didn't think he'd believe her so she didn't suppose it mattered. "I ducked into one of the places in the arcade when I heard you and Glen following me."

"OK then where did you go, this isn't exactly the shopping centre of the world and the shops in that arcade were worse than most so there wasn't anything there that you could of spent an hour doing."

"You'd think wouldn't you?"

"Nicola seriously you're worrying me now, did something happen to you? Is there something you're frightened of saying? I dread to think what sort of fucking weirdoes hang around in places like that arcade. Did someone hurt you or say something or….."

"No, fuck no Ollie seriously it's nothing that sinister." Nicola interrupted starting to feel guilty about the panic she could hear in his tone and the concern in his eyes. "Oh what the hell. Ok the shop I went into was one of those freaky shit places full of crystals and other "mystical" crap."

"Nicola stop it, you're not trying to make me believe you spent over an hour looking at crap like that. Fine if you don't want to tell me suit your fucking self I was just trying to help I don't like to see you looking so upset but if you don't want to talk fine just drink your drink and we'll go back to the hotel where no one gives a fuck and …."

"Ollie if you'd let me fucking finish I was going to tell you what happened. Jesus Christ aside from Malcolm you are the most impatient man I've ever known!" Nicola sighed draining her glass and waiting for him to refill it. "I was about to leave again when this girl appeared from the back of the shop she told me she had something to talk to me about and when I followed her into….."

"You followed her? You followed some random stranger into the back of a shop in a sea side arcade that is probably populated by every local pervert. Anything could have happened to you don't you realise that fuck me this is madness I'm not hearing it right I can't be you would never be….." Ollie interrupted his words faltering as his heart racing and his stomach tightening a little at the thought of the million ways she'd potentially put herself in danger.

"Do you want to hear this or not?"

"Of course I want to hear I'm just shocked that you'd blindly follow someone you didn't know."

"Yeah well I'm starting to wish I hadn't but it's done now." Nicola sighed wishing that she had just gone with the making up anything option as she tried to work out how to tell him she'd spent an hour listening to someone tell her things they couldn't possibly know about her past and make predictions about her future that were freaking her out a little more the longer she thought about them. Now that she'd started though she knew she had to follow through and hope that he didn't immediately call Malcolm and ask him to get some men in white coats and a padded van to take her to the nearest psychiatric unit when she was done.


End file.
